The farce that is Nouri al-Maliki's visit to DC continued today. A Sunni Iraqi community member e-mails:

If they are able to pass it [Parliament pass an election law], why
should I bother even to vote? I should go through five security
checkpoints in [deleted] to vote? By foot because it is always vehicle
curfew on election day. I should do by foot to vote only to have the
President of the United States again overturn my vote? That is what he
did last time [2010] and it is what he will do again. He owes us an
apology for overturning our voices.

Barack does owe the Iraqi people an apology. Instead of providing that,
he takes part in the farce Bully Boy Bush started and that he (Barack
has continued). And he'll never be forced to even justify his actions
-- let alone apologize -- as long as people like Aamer Madhani (USA Today) play the fool:
"Obama hopes that a new round of elections in which the country's
minority Sunni population is more active could help stem some of the
violence." Madhani damn well knew that in 2010, Sunni's turned out.
That's one reason Iraqiya won. But their votes were overturned by
Barack Obama.

Earlier this year, interviewing prisoners in Shaaba Khamsa, Baghdad’s
death row facility, I met a 52-year-old woman, one of the thousands of
prisoners the U.S. turned over to Iraqi custody when American troops
left nearly two years ago. She showed me the scars where security forces
had burned her with cigarettes, used electric shocks and beat her so
badly that she was still using crutches three years later.Two
courts had declared her innocent of the terrorism charges against her,
owing in part to a medical report documenting the extensive torture that
led to her confession. A third court, though, reversed these rulings
and sentenced her to death late last year, on the basis of “secret
evidence provided by the Americans.”

In September, she was among 42 prisoners executed in Iraq in two days.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is in Washington this week to ask
President Obama for warplanes, drones, and other assistance for Iraq’s
counterterrorism efforts. The president should send a clear message that
the kind of assistance Maliki seeks is not possible as long as his
security forces continue their widespread torture – often in the name of
counterterrorism.

Torture and forced confessions take place all the time in Iraq under
Nouri. They're so common, in fact, that people may forget that both are
banned by Iraq's Constitution. Thursday, Nouri al-Maliki gave a
ridiculous speech, overflowing with lies, at the US Institute of Peace.
As we covered in yesterday's snapshot,
he lied he had never, ever stepped on the Constitution. He lied, we
backed that up with examples yesterday, refer to that. Today National Iraqi News Agency reports:MP, Walid Mohammadi for Mottahidoon coalition called on the United
States of America to " listen to all sides in Iraq, not to a sole side
which is considered by a big percentage of Iraqis as the opponent ruling
political side.Mohammadi said in a statement today: " The
statements made by Maliki currently in Washington are amazing and
surprising , especially regarding the strictly application of the
Constitution,as Maliki alleges, where everyone knows that the
Constitution in Iraq, is not implemented but only taken paragraphs
which corresponds to the interests of the government, otherwise the
constitution is neglected and abused , he said.

Again, the meet-up between Barack and Nouri was a farce. Paul Danahar (BBC) predicted
ahead of the meet-up today, "And he [Nouri] will no doubt be told in
private he needs to rule for all his
people - not just those who share his faith or point of view. He'll
probably smile and agree and then ignore the advice while gladly
accepting whatever aid he might get." Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi
Tweeted the following yesterday:

The farce is much more than the notion that the US-installed prime
minister is anything but a thug. It also includes the notion that there
is a functioning government in Iraq. Al Rafidayn reports
that Nouri's office in Iraq today announced that Nouri was filing an
official request to be informed of the health status of Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani.

Last December, Iraqi
President Jalal
Talabani suffered a stroke. The incident took place late on December
17th (see the December 18th snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital. Thursday, December 20th,
he was moved to Germany. He remains in Germany currently.

If still in Germany next month, Jalal will have 'served' an entire year
out of the country and he's drawing a salary -- is he conducting any
official presidential business? Let's drop back to the snapshot for Tuesday, September 10th:Sunday, All Iraq News reported,
Osama al-Nujaifi declared he attempted to meet with the hospitalized
Jalal five months ago (that would have been around April) but was
rebuffed. He states he has again asked for another meeting. He further
states if Jalal is unable to resume his tasks shortly, a new president
needs to be named. Monday, Dar Addustour columnist As Sheikh noted that the Constitution is very clear on what happens when the
president can't perform duties but how is that determination made? (Is
Jalal performing duties from the hospital in Germany? He could be. If
he is, the Constitution would see him as in office.) The Constitution
says nothing, Sheik notes, about how long a president can be out of the
country. He reviews the rumors that Jalal has not recovered, that he is
in a coma, that he has passed away, that his family is putting up a
pretense that Jalal has recovered. He ends his column with a call for
clarity both in terms of the governing rules and in terms of the state
of Jalal's health.

In June, Going Global East Meets West noted
MP Hassan Alawi asserted that Jalal was "clinically dead" as well as
"that the images that appeared in Al Cardsat TV owned by the First Lady
Hero Talabani were fabricated."

The photos the MP is referring to include the one below and were published in May.

You can see three of the photos released here.
You'll note that people are seated to Jalal's left and right but in
every photo he just stares ahead with the same 'expression' and the same
body position (including hands). In other words, he doesn't move one
bit although the players in the photos -- the pretenders -- they rush to
lean forward, pretending they're listening to Jalal.

In real time, many scoffed, some wags dubbed it Weekend At Bernie's (two young men use the corpse of Bernie to pretend he's alive and have a wild adventure).

After denying the Speaker of Parliament a meeting in April, visits to
Jalal have continued to be denied. His political party is the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and, as President of Iraq, he's the head of
it. With provincial elections scheduled for the end of September in
the KRG, the PUK desperately needed to speak with Jalal and contacted
his people. They were rebuffed. Ekurd.net reported August 26th, "Leaders from Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by
Talabani confirmed that they did not see him since
he was transferred to Germany, pointing out that
Talabani’s wife, Hero Ibrahim and their two sons as
well as his nephew , Sheikh Genki Talabani are the
only ones who have visited him, as no one from the
party’s officials saw Talabani." And the PUK went on to have it worst showing in any election. Attempts to meet with him after the disastorous elections? As Ekurd.net reported October 7th:

A senior official from
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has revealed
that ailing Iraqi president and PUK leader Jalal
Talabani’s family won’t let party members visit him
at the German hospital where he is recovering after
suffering a stroke.A few days ago, a PUK official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, complained that no one from
his party other than Iraqi First Lady Hero Ibrahim
and Talabani’s official doctor, Kirkuk governor Najmaldin Karim,
has seen the President since he fell ill late last
year."They always says Talabani’s health is improving,
but repeating those wards a few times so far has put
a question mark on Talabani’s future," the official
told the Pan-Arab Newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

Are you getting why Iraqis, in ever larger numbers, are assuming their president is dead?

It doesn't help that the Talabani family originally even denied it was a
stroke. CNN was the first to report the reality there. Jalal is -- or
was -- grossly obese and 79-years-old. We've followed his health
since 2007 when, after being released from the Mayo Clinic, he collapsed
in a US bookstore and it took over six people to lift him. His stroke
was never a surprise. He refused to listen to doctors' orders that he
eat right and lose weight (they were only asking him to lose 60 pounds
which still would have left him at over 200 pounds). For five years, he
stuffed his fat face and just put on more weight as he ate greasy and
sugary foods and got no exercise. His stroke was desitned.

But the last thing the Talabani family has been honest about is that he
had a stroke -- and, again, their honesty on that was forced by CNN
blowing their cover story. Every few weeks since December 2012, Iraqis
are told that Jalal's health has improved and he'll be back in Iraq
shortly. We're now in the 11th month stage. When's he coming back?
And when will he address the Iraqi people? As Nermeen al-Mufti (Al-Ahram) pointed out last month, "According to the Iraqi constitution, Iraqis should elect a new president
after 30 days of the presidency being vacant, for example as a result
of illness."

Clearly Jalal is not recovering. Clearly he is not up to being
president and this has been over ten months of fraud, lying to the Iraqi
people. This is fraud if the rumor Rudaw reported
in September is true, "Sources tell Rudaw that on a visit to Iran last
May Talabani’s wife, Hero Ahmed, sought Tehran’s help in delaying
discussion over the position of the Iraqi presidency until the end of
the current presidential term. Hero reportedly told the Iranians that
such a debate will weaken the PUK’s position in the Kurdistan Region and
Iraq. Rudaw tried to verify the authenticity of this information but
none of the PUK’s senior officials were willing to comment."

As Moqtada al-Sadr has been pointing out for over a month, the Iraqi
people have a right to know the status -- the real status -- of Jalal's
health and whether or not he's able to handle presidential duties.